cinderella ft martin edwards ⟡ ݁ ݁♪ ⋆.
contains: bf!martin x gf!reader, female pronouns used. lowercase intended. fluff with angst. boarding school au. inspired by cinderella by mac miller ft ty dolla sign
synopsis: everyone at st. augustine’s knows martin edwards, the school’s star musician and your boyfriend. between shared headphones, late-night walks back to your dorm, expensive prom outfits, and sneaking into empty practice rooms after curfew, senior year starts feeling like something out of a dream. martin looks at you like midnight will eventually take you away from him... and maybe he’s right.
warnings: kissing, jokes, cursing, very highschool, making out mentioned but no details at all im not writing anything beyond a kiss about cortis, angst kinda.
you first met martin because of juhoon. well not met met.
you already knew who he was long before that. everybody at st. augustine’s did.
martin edwards. the school’s star musician. the pretty boy with expensive headphones and a stupidly charming smile that somehow worked on everybody. girls followed him around constantly, teachers adored him, and somehow even the guys liked him too.
you personally found him annoying. “he’s literally not even that special,” you said once while editing photos in the media room.
ella looked up from her phone.
“that sounded personal.”
“it wasn’t.” you respond “you called him ‘artificially likable.’” ella replied to you with a certain tone, indicating your feelings towards him.
“because he is.” you respond with speed.
the truth was martin made you nervous in the worst way possible. not because he flirted with you, he actually didn’t. but because every time he walked into a room, people naturally shifted toward him. and you hated people like that. hated boys who were too charming, too easy, too wanted. it made you feel this gold rush, what must it feel to grow up that beautiful?
juhoon, unfortunately, was best friends with him. which meant martin kept appearing everywhere.
lunch tables.
movie nights.
study sessions.
random dorm hangouts.
and every single time, martin tried talking to you. “you’re avoiding me,” he said.
ella nearly choked laughing.
martin just stared at you for a second before smiling.
“that’s actually fair.”
because he never got offended.
keonho once said,
“i genuinely think martin likes the way you insult him.”
“ew what the fuck,” you replied.
“exactly,” arin said dramatically from beside him. “that’s why he’s obsessed with you.”
martin wasn’t obsessed with you.
he’d sit beside you during group hangouts even when you barely acknowledged him. he’d steal your camera to take blurry photos of seonghyeon sleeping during study hall. he’d randomly send you songs at two in the morning with zero explanation.
most of the time you left him on seen.
juhoon noticed before you did.
“you smile at your phone now,” he said one night while the two of you walked back to your dorms.
“you do when it’s martin.”
you rolled your eyes hard enough to hurt.
but later that night, while sitting alone in your room, you caught yourself rereading one of martin’s messages anyway.
martin:
you looked pretty today btw
no flirting.
no weirdness.
just that.
which somehow made it worse.
things shifted after home economics started. mostly because the teacher kept pairing the two of you together.
martin was horrible at following instructions and kept burning everything while you stood there trying not to laugh.
“stop smiling,” you told him once.
“i think you’re a public safety risk.”
he laughed so hard he nearly dropped the mixing bowl.
after that, being around him became easy.
he started walking you back to your dorm after class. you started saving him seats in the library without thinking about it. eventually martin’s hoodie stayed in your room more than his own.
and somewhere between late-night vending machine runs, shared headphones, and martin quietly playing unreleased songs for you in empty practice rooms, people started assuming you were together.
the weird thing was neither of you corrected them.
then one night in december, martin showed up outside your dorm building holding two instant ramens and looking exhausted from rehearsal.
“come outside for a second,” he texted.
you found him sitting on the curb under the yellow dorm lights.
“you look terrible,” you told him.
you froze slightly. martin froze too. the word had slipped out naturally. like it already belonged to you.
his ears turned a little red.
“sorry.”
you stared at him for a few seconds too long.
then quietly:
“it’s fine.”
martin looked at you carefully then, like he was trying to solve something.
“can i ask you something?”
“are you ever gonna let me take you on a real date?”
instead you looked down at the ramen in his hands.
“these for me?”
and somehow that felt more dangerous than if he’d kissed you.
by march, everyone already assumed you and martin were together.
which honestly would’ve been easier if either of you had actually said it out loud.
instead, the two of you existed in this weird in-between space where martin slept in your dorm half the week, carried your camera bag without asking, held your hand whenever he felt like it, and still somehow never officially called you his girlfriend.
ella found the entire thing embarrassing.
“if you don’t define this relationship soon, i’m reporting both of you to the administration.”
“public emotional stupidity.”
meanwhile martin seemed perfectly content existing like this forever.
until prom season started.
suddenly the entire school became unbearable. girls screaming over dresses, guys pretending not to care while very obviously caring, teachers threatening to cancel afterparties every other morning.
keonho had already bought three different suits.
arin called two of them ugly.
they almost broke up twice in one afternoon.
you had just gotten out of biology HL feeling genuinely dead inside when you saw martin leaning against the hallway wall outside your classroom.
girls passing by kept glancing at him.
he looked unfairly pretty today. grey hoodie under his uniform blazer, headphones around his neck, hair messy like he’d been running his hands through it all day.
“you waited outside my class?” you asked.
martin shrugged.
“maybe.”
he laughed quietly before falling into step beside you down the hallway.
for a few seconds neither of you said anything.
you looked at him suspiciously.
“what about it?”
martin rubbed the back of his neck a little, suddenly looking oddly nervous.
“i was gonna do something dramatic,” he admitted. “like flowers or a sign or whatever but seonghyeon said you’d probably leave me there to die.”
then martin glanced at you.
“but do you wanna go with me?”
no giant gesture.
no audience.
just martin looking at you carefully like your answer actually mattered to him.
“you’re asking kinda late,” you said.
“i know. i thought maybe somebody cooler asked you already.”
“nobody cooler exists at this school. everyone here is deeply embarrassing.”
martin smiled.
“is that a yes?”
you pretended to think about it for a second too long just to annoy him.
“wow,” he said dryly. “romantic.”
martin bumped his shoulder lightly against yours as the two of you walked toward the dorm buildings together.
and even though the conversation had been casual, almost stupidly normal, your heart kept beating strangely fast anyway.
because martin edwards looked happier than he had all week just because you said yes.
the first saturday of april meant one thing at st. augustine’s:
which was apparently serious enough for the school to let seniors leave campus for the entire day under the condition that nobody got arrested, pregnant, or featured on social media doing something “inappropriate.”
james, now technically staff, called it:
“the annual heterosexual hunger games.”
arin immediately took control of the entire outing like a military commander in designer sunglasses.
“nobody buys anything ugly,” she announced while walking into the mall. “and if i see satin from shein, i’m killing myself in front of all of you.”
“good morning to you too,” ella muttered.
you honestly weren’t planning on caring this much.
you just needed a dress.
something simple.
something decent enough for photos.
meanwhile arin treated prom like the met gala.
within twenty minutes she had forced malia into trying on six dresses, made hyein nearly pass out from stress, and threatened to physically snatch a glittery red gown out of yoonchae’s hands.
“you look like a christmas ornament.”
“you look unemployed,” yoonchae shot back.
ella was sitting on a bench rating random men walking past on a scale from “annoying” to “future tax fraud.”
“that one definitely cheats emotionally,” she said while pointing at somebody holding shopping bags for his girlfriend.
“you cannot tell that from his posture.”
at some point arin turned toward you dramatically.
“what color are you wearing?”
“okay. text martin right now.”
arin stared at you like you’d just admitted you ate glue recreationally.
“so his tie matches your dress obviously?”
“i don’t care if it matches.”
before you could stop her, arin had already picked up her phone to text him.
"you have martin saved as, 'that tall slut' ?" you asked her, "yes hes tall and annoying so thats why i saved him as that." arin replied.
arin:
wear lilac or i’ll kill you
three dots appeared almost immediately.
that tall slut:
yes ma’am
she showed you the text, you hated how that made you smile.
meanwhile on the other side of the city, the boys’ shopping trip looked significantly less glamorous.
mostly because none of them actually wanted to be there.
“why do we all have to dress like divorced businessmen?” seonghyeon complained while holding up another plain black suit.
“because society fears creativity,” woojin replied solemnly.
martin was mostly quiet, scrolling through photos of lilac colored ties on his phone while keonho looked genuinely close to losing his mind.
“arin threatened to leave me for an italian nepo baby three times today,” he said bitterly.
“only three?” martin asked.
“because apparently i picked ‘the wrong shade of pink.’ do you know how many pinks there are?”
“a lot.” james, now graduated and currently working as a CAS adviser for them and also supervising the boys.
“NO NORMAL PERSON SHOULD KNOW THAT.” keonho exclaimed.
james nodded sympathetically.
“love is beautiful.”
martin finally held up a beautiful lilac tie toward the light slightly.
“you think she’ll like this color?”
keonho stared at him for a second.
“oh you must really like her, and also it looked lilac enough.”
“shut up and tell me properly,” martin said clearly flushed.
“nothing. just crazy how you asked about the tie like she’s your wife already.” keonho said, the he added "you can always ask arin for fashion opi-"
martin quickly cut him off "no, absolutely not. sorry i dont wanna be judged by a tiny mean girl."
martin rolled his eyes but still looked back down at the tie carefully anyway.
like it mattered more than he wanted it to.
prom night at st. augustine’s started six hours before prom actually started.
the girls’ dorm was complete chaos by four in the afternoon.
hair tools everywhere. makeup spilled across desks. dresses hanging from closet doors. somebody screaming about fake eyelashes in the hallway.
and over all of it, vogue by madonna blasting through arin’s speaker because apparently:
“prom is about glamour and if i hear one taylor swift song tonight i’m jumping out the window.”
“you say that every week,” ella said while trying to zip up her dress.
“because this school tests me spiritually.”
you sat cross-legged on the floor while hyein carefully curled malia’s hair beside you. yoonchae was laying dramatically across somebody else’s bed scrolling through her phone while insulting every promposal posted on instagram.
“men are actually embarrassing creatures.”
“you literally came with one,” ella reminded her.
arin walked out of the bathroom wearing a silk robe and full makeup like she was entering a fashion campaign.
everyone went silent for a second.
then malia blinked.
“you look expensive.”
arin pointed at you immediately.
“why are you not dressed yet?”
“because i still have time.”
before you could react, she was already dragging you toward the mirror.
“sit down. if martin edwards faints when he sees you tonight, i want it to be intentional.”
meanwhile across campus, the boys’ dorm somehow looked worse.
ties thrown everywhere. dress shirts hanging from ceiling fans. somebody burning something with a hair straightener for reasons nobody understood.
seonghyeon was trying to help keonho with his tie while keonho looked one inconvenience away from crashing out completely.
“if this knot looks ugly arin’s actually gonna leave me.”
“you say that every day.”
“because she threatens me every day.”
james sat on the couch counting cash in the most suspicious way possible.
martin narrowed his eyes.
“how much do we need to bribe you?”
james looked up calmly.
“depends.”
“depends what crime you’re asking about.”
“oh. minimum two hundred.”
“you work here now,” seonghyeon said.
“and yet i still believe in entrepreneurship.”
martin laughed quietly from where he stood in front of the mirror fixing the cuffs of his black suit.
he looked unfair tonight.
plain black suit. white dress shirt. navy tie matching your dress exactly. dark hair slightly messy no matter how many times he tried fixing it.
keonho noticed first.
“bro.”
“you bought her flowers.”
martin glanced toward the bouquet sitting carefully on his desk.
white roses.
small lilac flowers tucked between them.
“that doesn’t mean anything,” he muttered.
all three boys stared at him.
then woojin spoke carefully:
“martin, you literally changed ties three times because you said the lilac ‘felt emotionally incorrect.’”
back in the girls’ dorm, you finally stepped out wearing your dress.
ella looked genuinely shocked.
“oh that’s sick actually.”
hyein smiled softly.
“you look really pretty.”
even yoonchae paused scrolling through her phone.
“martin’s gonna act unbearable tonight.”
arin looked emotional for about two seconds before covering it up immediately.
“okay good. now somebody take pictures before i become evil again.”
prom photos at st. augustine’s were somehow more stressful than final exams.
half the parents treated it like a royal wedding while everybody else just tried not to blink at the wrong time.
the courtyard outside the ballroom had been covered in fairy lights and flowers, students everywhere taking photos while teachers pretended not to notice the very obvious alcohol hidden in water bottles already.
the girls arrived together.
which immediately caused a scene.
ella stepped out first in a dark maroon dress, looking like she was about to either break hearts or commit tax fraud.
“if a man talks to me tonight i’m calling security,” she announced.
behind her, hyein and malia walked side by side in matching shades of purple, hyein looking soft and nervous while malia looked completely relaxed about the fact hyein could barely make eye contact with her for longer than three seconds.
yoonchae wore green like she personally invented the color.
“i look better than everybody here,” she said calmly.
“unfortunately true,” ella replied.
simple.
elegant.
the kind of dress that didn’t need to beg for attention to get it.
arin came right after you in pink satin, looking genuinely insane in the way rich people in magazines looked insane.
keonho, standing across the courtyard with the boys, visibly lost all ability to function.
arin smiled slowly.
“there we go.”
“you’re actually the prettiest person i’ve ever seen.”
keonho looked like he might cry from relief when he realized she liked the dress.
“okay,” arin sighed dramatically, fixing his tie for him. “i’ll make out with you later.”
next to him, seonghyeon immediately spotted ian walking toward him in teal accents matching his tie.
“wait,” seonghyeon blinked. “you actually coordinated?”
ian shrugged.
“i can be romantic occasionally.”
“bro i might fall in love with you harder.”
meanwhile juhoon stood quietly beside mili, whose reddish dress matched his tie perfectly.
the two of them somehow looked effortlessly cool without trying.
ella narrowed her eyes at them.
“you guys look like a netflix couple.”
“is that an insult?” mili asked.
the noise around him seemed to disappear for a second.
james noticed immediately.
“oh he’s DONE.”
martin looked genuinely stunned standing there holding your flowers.
black suit.
lilac tie.
slightly messy hair.
those stupid soft eyes fixed entirely on you.
like you were the only thing in the courtyard worth looking at.
you walked toward him slowly.
martin didn’t even try pretending to act normal.
“sorry, my brain stopped working.”
you rolled your eyes but still took the flowers from his hands carefully.
white roses.
small lilac flowers tucked between them.
“you clean up okay,” you said quietly.
martin laughed softly.
“okay is crazy.”
then he leaned down slightly toward you.
something warm twisted painfully in your chest.
because martin always said things like he meant them too much.
around you, cameras flashed constantly while everybody shouted over each other trying to organize group photos.
james was loudly threatening to expose couples with bad chemistry.
ella was bullying men recreationally.
keonho would not stop staring at arin.
hyein looked one compliment away from passing out.
but martin barely noticed any of it.
his hand found yours naturally.
and for the rest of the night, he didn’t let go once.
by the time everybody actually made it inside the ballroom, the entire place already felt unreal.
gold lights reflected against the glass walls, music loud enough to shake the floor slightly, students everywhere pretending they weren’t emotional about the fact this was one of the last big nights before graduation.
someone had convinced the school to turn the ceiling into a fake night sky.
it was dramatic.
very rich private school.
keonho immediately disappeared with arin toward the dance floor like he’d been waiting his entire life for this exact moment.
“if he starts crying i’m leaving,” arin warned.
“you literally promised to make out with him earlier,” yoonchae said.
“and i’m a woman of my word.”
meanwhile ella had already stolen somebody’s drink and was aggressively interrogating random boys for entertainment.
you stayed near the back of the ballroom for a little while, camera hanging from your wrist automatically out of habit while martin talked to seonghyeon and james nearby.
and smiled immediately when he saw you.
it was actually unfair how easily he did that.
he walked toward you through the crowd, black suit slightly messy already, navy tie loosened just enough to make him look softer somehow.
“you’ve been hiding from me all night,” he said.
“i’ve been here the whole time.”
martin glanced down at the camera in your hands.
“no pictures right now.”
instead of answering, he gently took the camera from your hands and placed it down on the nearest table.
then held his hand out toward you.
the part of cinderella by mac miller ft ty dolla sign that makes martin feel every emotion ever.
I been waitin' all night for this moment
I been waitin' all year for this moment
I been picturin' you takin' off your clothes for me
I been literally curvin' all these hos for you
martin grinned instantly.
“see? even the universe wants me to win.”
“and yet you still like me.”
you let him pull you toward the dance floor anyway.
the closer you got, the warmer everything felt. lights blurring together. people laughing too loudly. somebody screaming the lyrics from across the room.
martin’s hands settled carefully at your waist like he was trying not to hold you too tightly.
which almost made it worse.
because martin always touched you like you were something important.
for a little while neither of you spoke.
you just moved slowly together while the noise around you melted into something distant.
martin looked down at you with this strange softness in his eyes.
the kind that made your chest ache if you looked at it too long.
“you know,” he said quietly, “i’ve literally been waiting all night for this moment.”
his thumb brushed absentmindedly against your waist.
“been waiting all week actually.”
you laughed softly despite yourself, and martin’s expression changed immediately when he heard it.
then more quietly:
“you’re happy tonight.”
the way he said it almost sounded relieved.
like your happiness mattered to him more than his own.
around you, everybody else was still chaotic as usual.
keonho and arin were dancing and in their entire world like everyone expected.
ella was dancing aggressively with yoonchae while insulting men in between lyrics.
james had somehow convinced teachers he was “supervising.”
hyein looked like she might faint every time malia touched her hand.
but martin only looked at you.
like the entire night had narrowed down into this one slow dance.
and for a second, with his forehead resting lightly against yours under all those golden lights, it almost felt dangerous how badly he loved you.
the alcohol appeared exactly forty-three minutes into prom.
which honestly had to be a school record.
one second teachers were still pretending everybody was innocent and wholesome, and the next james was mysteriously walking around with a suspiciously heavy duffel bag while students suddenly became way louder than before.
“if any of you idiots get caught,” james warned, handing seonghyeon a bottle, “i was never here.”
“you literally work here,” seonghyeon said.
“exactly. respect my career.”
some poor exhausted teacher near the ballroom entrance rubbed his temples before shouting:
“don’t get anyone pregnant and don’t get pregnant please! we cannot repeat last year’s incident!”
the entire room erupted into screaming laughter.
“WHAT HAPPENED LAST YEAR?” somebody yelled.
“WE ARE LEGALLY NOT ALLOWED TO DISCUSS IT.”
martin was already laughing beside you, one hand loosely intertwined with yours while the other held a red plastic cup he definitely wasn’t supposed to have.
his cheeks were slightly pink now.
not drunk.
just softer around the edges.
you noticed martin got quieter when he drank.
less performative.
less school-famous martin edwards.
music shook through the ballroom walls while people danced too close under dim gold lights. somewhere across the room keonho and arin had completely disappeared.
“they’re definitely making out somewhere,” you said.
martin nodded seriously.
“probably violating at least three school rules as we speak.”
he smiled lazily before looking down at your intertwined hands for a second.
and something about his expression changed.
but enough for your chest to tighten slightly.
because martin suddenly looked at you like he couldn’t believe you were real.
the kind of look people in love accidentally gave.
“what?” you asked quietly.
he shook his head once, smiling to himself a little before pulling you closer through the crowd.
“just… been waiting all night for this.”
the lights blurred around him. navy tie slightly loosened now. hair falling into his eyes. the smell of expensive cologne and alcohol and flowers still clinging faintly to his suit.
you’d kissed martin before.
quick kisses between classes.
sleepy kisses in dorm hallways.
laughing kisses after arguments.
but tonight felt different.
like the entire evening had been building toward something neither of you were saying out loud.
martin’s thumb brushed against your knuckles absentmindedly.
“c’mere,” he murmured softly.
then he leaned down and kissed you.
like he wanted to memorize it.
the noise around you faded almost instantly. just music vibrating through the floor and martin’s hand tightening slightly around yours like he was scared you’d disappear if he let go.
and when you kissed him back, martin actually exhaled against your mouth like relief.
like after a long time of feeling wrong, something finally felt right again.
somewhere in the distance people were screaming lyrics horribly off-key.
someone knocked over a drink.
ella was loudly threatening violence at a guy who called her “sweetheart.”
but martin barely noticed any of it.
because right now, under all those stupid golden lights, with your lipstick slightly smudged onto his mouth and your hand still in his, martin thought this had to be what love was supposed to feel like.
for the first time in a long time, he felt okay.
and that scared him more than anything.
by the end of the night, prom had dissolved into complete chaos.
heels abandoned under tables.
half-empty drink bottles hidden terribly behind decorations.
people crying in bathroom stalls over relationships that would probably survive another week maximum.
the fake stars on the ballroom ceiling shut off one by one around two in the morning while exhausted teachers herded students back toward dorm buildings like disappointed babysitters.
outside, the night air felt cold against your skin after hours inside the overheated ballroom.
everyone walked back in loud messy groups, blazers slung over shoulders, makeup slightly ruined, ties loosened.
seonghyeon was leaning dramatically against juhoon while laughing at absolutely nothing.
james kept yelling,
“if anybody asks, i was at church tonight.”
malia and hyein walked suspiciously close together.
ella was still ranting about men.
“he asked me if mercury retrograde was a greek god.”
“that’s kinda funny,” you admitted.
martin walked beside you quietly, fingers brushing against yours every few seconds naturally.
like he couldn’t stop checking you were still there.
before splitting off toward the boys’ dorm, he leaned down close enough for you to smell the alcohol faintly on his breath.
“text me when you get upstairs.”
“you’re literally thirty seconds away.”
you rolled your eyes.
“okay.”
martin smiled softly at that.
the girls’ dorm immediately exploded into noise the second everybody got inside.
heels kicked off.
makeup wipes everywhere.
someone stealing snacks from the communal kitchen.
yoonchae collapsed face-first onto her bed dramatically.
“i survived another social event. unfortunately.”
ella pointed toward malia and hyein.
“you two were looking at each other like lesbians in a coming-of-age film all night.”
hyein nearly choked to death.
then the dorm room door opened again.
hair slightly messy.
pink lipstick smudged.
keonho’s blazer hanging over her shoulders instead of hers.
arin blinked once slowly.
“…don’t.”
ella sat up immediately.
“OH MY GOD.”
“you look like something absolutely happened.”
arin threw a pillow directly at her.
“shut up.”
yoonchae narrowed her eyes.
“you committed crimes tonight.”
arin tried failing to hide a smile while taking off her earrings.
“keonho almost cried because i said i loved him.”
ella gasped theatrically.
“oh you’re serious serious.”
meanwhile across campus, the boys’ dorm somehow looked even worse.
someone had stolen a traffic cone.
nobody knew why.
there was music playing too loudly from seonghyeon’s speaker while woojin ate instant noodles directly from the pot.
keonho was currently pacing around the room recounting his crimes proudly.
“okay so technically we broke curfew, snuck alcohol into school property, made out in the art hallway, bribed james, and i’m pretty sure arin stole a centerpiece.”
“worth it,” james said immediately.
seonghyeon pointed toward him accusingly.
“bro you literally disappeared for like an hour.”
through all of it, martin stayed unusually quiet.
sitting on the edge of his bed still wearing half his suit, navy tie loosened around his neck, staring down at his phone.
martin looked up slowly.
“yeah.”
because underneath the warmth still lingering in his chest from tonight, something else had started creeping in quietly.
the one that always came after he got too happy.
like eventually something would ruin it.
like good things never stayed long enough.
like he was already counting down to losing this somehow.
martin looked back down at the photo saved on his phone from earlier tonight.
you standing under golden lights in that navy blue dress smiling slightly at the camera.
his chest tightened strangely.
because for a few hours tonight, everything had felt perfect.
and martin didn’t trust perfect things to stay.
thank you for reading if you have finished it. i want to post a part two thats inspired but the cure by olivia rodrigo.
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